Lacking Telomeres May Make You Age Faster

By Dana Berger and Clay Walsh

Researching Telomeres

-Scientists at the University of Leicester might have discovered why some people look older than they actually are by researching Telomeres

Telomeres= are pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect the chromosome from damage.

- As cells divide telomeres shrink, and scientists think that is the cause of biological aging.

Whats the difference between biological and chronological aging? -Biological aging is the physical state of your cells after they split

-Chronological aging is how long you have actually lived

-scientists say that someone who is 40 years old who has small telomeres may have a biological age of a 50 year old

Variations in Telomeres Length

- Scientist Nilesh Samani studied 500,000 genetic variations to find telomere length difference in the variations

- Scientists did in fact find a variant that causes some people to have shorter telomeres

- The variant is genetic

Tests on animals

-Scientists examined animals with shorter telomeres and these animals showed faster biological aging

-Scientists say that on average people with one copy of the variant are 4-5 biological years older then the same chronological age without the variant

-They also say that on average people with 2 copies of the variant are 6-8 biological years older then the same chronological age without the variant

Concerns with shorter telomeres

- Samani is also a cardiologist and brought up concerns about how shorter telomeres can bring up early heart disease

-He says people who are chronologicaly older may have better health then someone chronologicaly younger

-This is dangerous because someone can think they are healthy but can actually be at risk

Can you tell from looks who is bilogically older?

-Scientists are interested in seeing if you can identify people who are biologically older by appearance

-At this point in time, the scientists are unsure if you can, and are trying to develop a way to test that

Acknowledgments

1. Scientific American for posting the original articlehttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=aging-telomere